It was not a personal comment aimed at any MEPs. I’ve apologised directly & unreservedly to Mr. Bullman for any offence caused. I have upmost respect for anyone who stood up & fought against Nazism, Communism & any other kinds of extremism, regardless of political affiliation.

Guy Verhofstadt, who leads the Liberal ALDE group, called the comments an “insult to all those social democrats who fought against Nazis”, and urged Mr Kamall to apologise.

Mr Bullmann said it was “an awful thing to say” and said that German social democrats had voted against Hitler’s group in the Reichstag.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionIn full: European Parliament president v Nigel Farage

Mr Kamall responded: “I get tired of people saying Nazism is a right-wing ideology. I believe in freedom of speech, but if I have offended you – and clearly I have – I apologise unreservedly.”

He later tweeted: “It was not a personal comment aimed at any MEPs.”

During the same sitting, European Parliament president Antonio Tajani clashed with former UKIP leader Nigel Farage as he said the EU had ended the “ghastly and terrible systems” of Nazism and Soviet communism.

Mr Farage said Mr Tajani was trying to “rewrite history” and said his remarks were “deeply insulting” to the efforts of the United States.

Mr Tajani replied: “Seventy years of peace have existed in Europe since the two horrible dictatorships and that is due to the European Union, so perhaps you should be a bit more careful in your reading of history.”